"We didn't tell Casillas why he was dropped"

Yesterday, Aitor Karanka went back to his hometown to pick up the Gold Badge from the Alava Committee of Coaches. The Real Madrid assistant manager answered questions from the public after the event, including many about the latest goings-on at Real Madrid.

On the subject of Casillas being benched in Málaga, Mou's right-hand man said: "Iker wasn't given any explanation about being dropped. As a coach, you pick who you think is going to do the best job".

Karanka stuck to his guns with regards to the way the Portuguese coach approached the decision, adding: "Mourinho doesn't have to justify why a player plays or not. But he knows which players need explanations more than others".

The former centre-back refused to be drawn on Pepe's comments about supposed bias against Portuguese players in the Spanish press. "I can't comment because I don't know what his reasoning was", Karanka claimed.

The Madrid legend also revealed how he ended up returning to the club as a coach: "Valdano called Fernando Hierro to tell him Mourinho wanted me as his assistant".

"I don't think about the future or pay attention to rumours. When the time comes to make a decision, the club and I will do what's best", Karanka stated about the possibility that the 'Special One', who he believes is the best manager in the world, is set to leave at the end of the season.

Karanka also spilled the beans on how Mourinho informed him that he would be on regular media duty: "He told me I would have to face the media regularly, because he doesn't have a good relationship with (Spanish) journalists".